Mt Baker

Made a little trip with Keith and Nick down to Black Mountain ranch, not far from Mount Baker, Washington state, USA. Headed down in the evening, crossed the border and got dragged in to the building cos I'm an alien. Made it to the cabin and chilled with beers and a long winded game of monopoly. Crashed at about 2 and looked forward to hitting the mountain in the morning.

When I woke at about 7, it had been snowing for some time, it was great to see white everywhere. We had a breakfast burrito at the local cafe and then headed up the mountain. It was snowing quite heavily and the road was quite well covered.

It was the busiest Keith had ever seen it, but lift lines were still just a minute or two. It snowed on the mountain all day, and at the top visibility was quite limited. Depth perception on the first couple of hundred metres was challenging, it was very tough to negotiate how steep the terrain was or how deep the snow was.

It was a totally new environment to me, and I loved every minute of it. My skills improved rapidly and by the end of the day I was zipping along nicely. I stopped up top a couple of times just to admire the view and all the snow. It was just so startling beautiful. I found a few fresh powder spots that hadn't been found in between a couple of runs, and for the first time I glided through "powder". The feeling was sensational, and left me wanting more. I cant wait to board at Whistler :)

we headed home again in the dark after a beer and managed to sneak our way around a 70 min wait at the border back into Canada. Wish we could have stayed longer, the next day on the mountain would have been even better, it was still snowing when we left.

Christmas

So after having a christmas eve party shut down just before midnight, I headed up to Mount Seymour on a beautifully sunny Christmas day. The snow was reasonable considering the conditions, but the highlight of the day was both my ability to stay upright after 3 years since last snowboarding, and the magnificent view of greater Vancouver from the top of the mountain. I layer of broken cloud added to the ambience of the mountain. It was pretty busy for a xmas day, i suspect due to the weather. I was so warm i ended up wearing my jacket open with just a tshirt underneath. Hot shower and beers capped off my first day boarding on the north shore well. Looking forward to Grouse and Cypress at some point soon too.

Snow shots from phone

More xmas Bokeh

More xmas Bokeh, originally uploaded by cleangetaway.

crazy xmas bokeh

crazy xmas bokeh, originally uploaded by cleangetaway.

Checked out the Christmas lights in Stanley Park on Christmas eve, it was a nightmare with all the kids and stressed parents flooding the place, but some nice displays. I realised their were some good opportunities to shoot bokeh here, and through experimentation, found some sweet effects with lights, colours and focus.

Xmas Beers at the Alibi Room

Xmas Beers at the Alibi Room, originally uploaded by cleangetaway.

Christmas brews!

Global Syndicate

Looking forward to seeing these guys perform with DJ WHOO KID on Boxing day, should be sweet!!

better late than never....

I always feel like I am rushing blog pics. Been meaning to post some of these for a while, still more to come as well...

Cold but busy!

Well the temperature has plummeted to daytime highs in the negatives! we are lucky here though as it only gets to about -6 or 7 at night and the daytime sits between -2 and 0. Over east ist been way colder and the forecast tomorrow for Manitoba had temperatures as low as -45c!!!! Im loving the sunshine though and have been able to get out quite a lot too shoot. I'v had an interesting week or so recently, I have started working in uniforms distribution with CSC which is helping with cash flow. I met some photographic clients on the street last friday morning and ended up shooting 15 photos for their website which is launching soon with their new business, a law firm operating out of Gastown. The project was a lot of fun, spending several hours around the revived area near the waters of burrard inlet, shooting the buildings, alleys and streets. It was pretty chilly and many times my fingers lost feeling, but the sunshine made for some great shots. I also did a shoot with Garrett and his guys down in Yaletown last night, should be plenty more work there in promotions so looking very forward to that. Its amazing how things have happened lately, just got to keep it going and things will get sweeter. Mt Baker looks like the new years destination, still dying for some snow action!! should be a fun trip down south of the boarder. Hoping to get to seattle at some point for a xmas present, eyes are on a nice prize that will bring my photography up yet another level. Im excited!! still need the 70-200 fixed and now my flash gun has died too, so need to find out whats going on with that!! Wireless flash gear will be here soon so I will need some working flashes to play with it!!  couple of shots below from the Gastown shoot and the trio from last night to post soon...

Winter / New Camera finally!

Hmmm, well the first day of Winter was a beautiful one! Its supposed to be nice right through until next week, where monday is due to be a max of -7c (Its definitely colder without cloud cover, but whoah!!) but tomorrow the forecast could change to blizzards for Thursday, so we'll see. Either way its been nice to be outside without it raining.

New Camera is in my hands and boy is it impressive so far! Hope to take it out repeatedly while the weather is good and shoot as much Vancouver as I can. Desperately need a new mid focal range lens, will need to pocket some coin for a bit and flog an old one to fund it, but once I have that I will be in serious business!

Met some interesting people in the last week or so, lots of opportunities popping up, lets see what I can make of them! Cant wait to get some time in the snow too, everything set to go just narrowing down insurance options, not having a repeat of the ankle experience!!


Couple of shots from the 50d.... I should have bought this a long time ago....

Under the Bridge Downtown (Burrard Bridge)

Lightning fast! 6.3 frames per second

 Seymour & Georgia